A Beacon in the Night
by Kaeni
Summary: When Alucard returns, new foes decide to send him on a little trip to the RWBY world. God help Remnant, the no-life king has come!
1. A Surprise Return

**Naught But a Remnant:**

A Beacon in the Night

 **This is the first fanfic. Many thanks to FidderTheClown (did I really just say that) for challenging me to do this. I guess all there is to say is: Onwards with the show!**

A dark figure stole across the bedroom. Shadows clung to it, as though it never left their cover, even when crossing beam of moon light that entered through the grand window. Clad in a long red jacket, and a red hat that matched, it stole across the floor. It leaned over the single bed that dominated the room, and a hint of white gleamed slightly as fangs slid from its gums…

Gunshots echoed through the room as the occupant of the bed, a woman with one eye covered in a simple eyepatch, dressed in a rather floral nightgown, unleashed a full magazine into the hellish creature, who crumbled against the wall, lying slumped as though dead. Then she unleashed a second rounds into the beast, the far more accurate aim hitting a certain vital organ which had once beat in the fiend's chest, then the rest into the head. This thing could survive ordinary gunshot wounds, no; they had to be far more permanent than that. The head was always a good place to start with the supernatural, and the heart was doubly so. The reason for the third magazine was slightly different. It had the gall to enter her room, hers out of all of the people in Great Britain, then to _bleed_ on her carpet! She kept her cool however, at least outwardly, especially when she saw the monster's attire and his now reforming face. That was the only reason she didn't order the seemingly young woman that burst in to take him outside and introduce him to her Harkonnen for splattering brain matter all over her freshly painted walls. "Sir Integra are you all- Master!" Instantly Integra's bodyguard lowered her weapon; the khaki clad blonde recognising the crumbled figure and though there was a big smile on her face, she kept her distance. There were very few people that were ever happy to see Alucard, particularly when someone had gone and pissed him off, like filling him full of bullet holes. Integra was safe from his wrath, (the perks of being a Hellsing were just as many as its cons), but the Harkonnen-wielder mightn't be so lucky. Because while outwardly Alucard was grinning, laughing and monologuing like any psychopathic vampire, inside he was furious that someone had ruined his suit. He had spent hours dying it in blood, apparently, sometime between the nineteenth and eighteenth centuries, a gruesome little fact that he had imparted on a young wide-eyed Integra. He'd even used his victim's guts to hang the drying cloth, while the bodies had been reanimated as ghouls and used to terrorise the surrounding villages while he had taken a trip to Romania. He had assured her that that had been a minor detail. Coincidently, it was the last time any Hellsing had been foolish to even consider giving Alucard time off, let alone leave the mansion unsupervised.

"Alucard, how… wonderful to see you. I thought our little tangle with Millennium might have been the end of you." Alucard's feral grin stretched even wider than it was. "Oh, no I was simply preoccupied with killing off the three million, three hundred thousand, twenty four thousand eight hundred and forty-six souls that resided in my body. The Schrödinger brat's soul was troublesome to deal with, though nothing I couldn't handle." He stood, the lethal wounds that had criss-crossed his body now gone, as though they had never been. "How much time have I missed, hum? A few years, a decade? The mind grows somewhat fuzzy when you're busy slaughtering vast amounts of people." "It's been thirty years Alucard. I have grown old, while you have stayed the same-""Please don't divulge into a monologue at the moment, I've had to listen to condemning rants for quite a while, stating that I was a monster etc. I detest self-righteous fools, particularly if they're dead." Integra took a deep breath in, she had handled him in the past with ease, so why couldn't she now? He was different, more feral; the thin layer of civilised grace that he had once had, now almost entirely transparent. Had he unhinged what little sanity he had possessed; slaughtering the souls that he had taken in or Hellsing had transplanted into him? Or was it something else? Abraham Vans Hellsing's diaries had stated that Dracula, no, Alucard had seemed wilder until the final battle, where he had claimed that he had finally found a worthy opponent. Could that be the case, could Alucard need a rival, an arch nemesis to ground him in life? If so, he had a dangerous villain complex. She'd get the Warlock division to investigate; this could be a serious matter, because if he had no one to ground his mind in this world, how long would the ancient spells bind him to the Hellsing family, the world couldn't stand to have to deal with another bloodthirsty Vampire, especially since the Tenth crusade all those years ago, London was still in the process of rebuilding.

"Have you any blood to spare, I am simply… famished. It has been so long since I've tasted some, so long…" inwardly sighing, Integra withdrew a penknife from her pocket, before cutting one of her fingers with it. Blood pooled from the slit, and Seras's eyes turned crimson, the aroma bringing her vampiric side to the fore. Alucard's glasses hid the colour of his eyes, though she doubted he had anything but a vampiric side, he was the one of the oldest vampires living, if not the oldest. She rose from her bed, and Alucard lowered himself to the ground, until his gaping mouth was underneath the small wound. Then a droplet fell, and eagerly the mouth snapped shut, an expression of pure bliss spreading across his face for a moment. "Thank you, my Countess" the words were said without a trace of mockery, his features neutral. "Of course… my Count" a small smile on her lips. This was bad; could he be remembering what he was? Had unleashing his full form those thirty years ago left more than his new attitude, could it also rekindle the supressed memories locked away in his head with black magic and primitive science? Goddammit, she needed answers, but first there was business to attend too.

"Seras, I want you to first stop staring at Alucard with puppy dog eyes, then go down and tell Sergeants Mason and Filks that I expect their squads to be ready for deployment in ten minute's time. Meanwhile I shall be bringing Alucard up to date with the current state of affairs, understood?" Seras nodded hastily, and then left the room quickly. That one understood orders at least, unlike the other two she'd picked up over the years. "Alucard, wait outside while I dress myself. I will be but a moment." Alucard left silently, his feet making no noise as he stood once more and crossed to the door. "Oh and Alucard, one last thing." He turned slightly, his face mostly still hidden in shadow. "Inform Ms Victoria through your mental connection that she is to also send a clean-up team to my room. You've left quite a mess in the corner with your bodily fluids." Alucard acknowledged the order with the predatory smile so typical of him, and then left the room.

" _Police Girl, Integra wants you to send a janitor to clean her room, understood?" "Yes master I understand, welcome back master, welcome back-"_ he severed the mental conversation. He had no interest in listening to the girl. He had a headache at the moment. It seemed some of the souls had escaped the massacre and were trying to wreak havoc inside his mind. A quick mental plunge into his brain later, and the white static noise of some of the Romanians he had used to create his lovely jacket was gone, though the headache had yet to subside fully. Just in time, as his master stepped out the door leading to her now blood-splattered bedroom. She wore a tailored version of the clothes she had worn the last time he had seen her, the eye-patch suited her. He was never one to study a person's appearance for long, nor to take in much of its detail. Most of the time he was too busy trying to kill them to really notice. All people looked the same after a few rounds from the Jackal that was to say, bloody pieces scattered across the ground. Oh, how he missed it. There was nothing quite like holding a weapon that could blow sizeable holes in people. Sure, the guns he had wielded in the past had been good as well; doing their job, but the Jackal had the added attraction of stopping pesky regeneration. It was a shame that Walter had detonated a small charge he had hidden inside it. The Jackal had mysteriously malfunctioned after that, and he had discarded it amidst the London rubble. It was no doubt long gone at this stage, if thirty years had passed since he had carelessly thrown it away. Perhaps he could get a new one, despite Walter having turned traitor and being no doubt killed during or after Millennium's invasion. Integra did not handle betrayal well, ever since her uncle had tried to kill her for the family position, that had been the day he had been awoken again, after Sir Arthur Hellsing had locked him away in the darkness so many, many years ago.

He shook himself from his memories, he could reminiscence later. The pair began walking through the mansion, heading towards the garage, or so he thought. He needed to know how much the world had changed. If it was free from all the things that went bump in the night, then he might have a problem on his hands; there would be nothing he'd be allowed to kill, though the continued existence of Hellsing meant otherwise. "The world has changed, Alucard, and we have many new enemies (oh joyous day!), and a few more reliable allies. The hole your absence left, coupled with the extensive casualties that Hellsing and Iscariot took, and we had all the hidden occult societies and hellish creatures appearing from the woodwork, intent on our destruction. Iscariot, having been reined in and withdrawn as quickly as possible from the battle of London by the Pope, suffered fewer losses, though they did take quite a beating in the days that followed, since they too were missing their trump card; Anderson. The queen saw fit to give a continued grant of emergency powers to Hellsing, and I rebuilt the organisation from scratch. I realised that we needed more numbers, among other things. The current strength of living Hellsing operatives is roughly thousand combat troops and non-combat around is around four-hundred or so." "Living?" Alucard questioned, catching the added word. "We also employ three vampires, Seras among them, of the other two one is turned, another artificially created by the Warlock division." Alucard glanced at the woman striding beside him, she had certainly grown up. "What happened to the innocent girl that I knew, going on about the virtues?" he asked mockingly. "We needed the extra strength, and besides Hellsing only kills vampires that are a threat to us. They were part of the plan to partially fill in the gap left by your supposed death, and in case you're wondering the Warlock Division is there to research our enemies, aid our soldiers, and provide all of the guns that we need." Alucard raised an eyebrow, she had learned alright "So now you have magic users in the ranks, impressive. Especially if they're fully living up to the warlock name and using science to enhance those powers. If I may ask, what was the other part of the plan to fill the void my supposed death?" Integra replied neutrally "We're on our way to see it now, just be patient." Inwardly she was grimacing; crap he wasn't going to like this at all. She led him to an elevator, slid a key-card into a slot beside the metal doors, and then typed in a code using the keypad below it. The doors opened, and the pair stepped inside. She pressed the button for minus level three, and they descended to the bowls of the mansion. With a slight ping, the doors parted, allowing them to see outside. They stepped through onto the catwalk the elevator exited on. "This is the second part of the plan to replace you, The Ghoul Army!"

Integra had been right, he was not happy at all. "Are you telling me" he growled, his eyebrows twitching slightly "that you tried to replace me with… ghouls?!" "It's just the support part of the plan; the vampires are the main part, the five thousand or so ghouls gathered below are just in case Iscariot or any other organisation tries to do what the Valentine brother's did." "I DON'T CARE!" he bellowed, before gaining control of himself. "You're sleeping on the couch tonight, understood the couch!" "We're not married at all, we don't sleep together, so why would you even bring that up?!" Alucard rubbed his head for a moment. "Sorry just a figment from someone's wife I killed a while ago. Even if you've destroyed their conscious will, their energy can still affect the one who consumed them, for example right there." He was bristling though, so she moved on hurriedly. "Do you remember Blue Star?" Alucard's mood changed alarmingly fast. "Those snivelling cowards" he laughed "those ten that offered a truce, they would stick to non-human experimentation with magic, if we didn't kick their doors down in the middle of the night? I remember them well." "They now number around seven thousand members, with a few hundred magically created vampires, as well as several thousand of some kind of wolf possessed with a human soul among that figure." Alucard laughter died down after that. "They also have magic users, but we don't know how much of them there are. They've moved along way down the path of human experimentation while we've been weak. The task that I've assigned to you tonight is to target one of their bases that we've found. I have their majesties' full permission, and they are already mobilising the armed forces, as is Iscariot and the new American organisation, the Founders. Understood?" Alucard replied after a moment's thought "I'll need weapons, wait, let me try something." He concentrated, and a long old-fashioned rifle appeared in his hand. "Ms. Rip Van Wrinkle's rifle will serve for this mission at least." Integra was taken aback; he could use his victim's abilities now? Had he absorbed them so totally that he didn't need a familiar to use the power? The Warlock division would have to investigate this as well. "I want you ready to leave within ten minutes. You're our going to part of our first strike against Blue Star. Don't fail me!"

 **And so ends the first chapter! Expect crossoverness to happen in the second or third chapter, and if you have any questions, just ask, and I'll answer them in the next chapter's author's notes. I'm a bit rusty on all the Hellsing know-how (My RWBY know-how isn't the best either), so any mistakes you spot in naming or anything like that don't hesitate to tell me. Flames will be ignored (I don't waste energy replying to people who think you suck is a valid argument.) Constructive criticism is appreciated, so keep it rolling. Make sure to check out FidderTheClown (goddamnit I said it again), and hopefully you can forgive any of my pathetic attempts at humour. R &R please, and BYEEEEEE! **


	2. Blue Star

**Naught But a Remnant:**

Blue Star

 **Hello again. First off I apologise to TehUnoMan (I think that's right) as he is in fact the proud owner of the first RWBYxHellsing crossover title. I erroneously claimed that I was first in my first chapter (Now fixed with the help of editing). Go check out his story The Vampire and The Dark god as well as his other stuff. Updates will be sporadic, as for the entire week I've been challenged to work on one of my original fiction pieces. With that said, onwards with the show!**

The whirling of helicopter blades punctured the early morning quiet. Emblazoned with a distinct crest, and a sleek black shape, they seemed to almost radiate fear, the urge to run and never look back. Or perhaps the vampire that peered out one of the portholes was generating the aura of terror.

Alucard took in how much the world had changed. The air was tinged with far more chemicals that burned the back of his throat, yet it was the taste of freedom, having rescued himself from the nightmarish hell that was left of his soul. And he was hunting again, the air rife with delicious tension among the other Hellsing operatives on board. Oh, the burden of mortality, that they feared for their lives, despite hiding it, or at least trying to. He was going to enjoy this.

Bolts were drawn back, guns loaded, masks pulled over faces, prayers quietly said. Then they began their descent, breaking from the cloud-cover, a chariot plummeting from the sky carrying an avenging host. Breaths were quickly taken in, pulses racing slightly, the last few nervous moments spent fidgeting with weapons, or making sure the mask was secure. Their target, a reasonably sized facility built around a small bay, approached them with lightning speed. Small figures rushed about down below, realising all too slowly what was roaring through the night towards them; Death.

Bullets scraped by, pinging against the metal hull, tearing small holes. Then the doors were pulled open, their ride hanging several metres off the ground as they charged out, firing quick efficient shots at the bewildered enemy. Blue Star's barely trained recruits were no match for Hellsing personnel, not even the SAS could hold their own against them for long.

Alucard stayed inside the helicopter after he discharged his weapon, watching as it winged around the battlefield, a bright blue streak that sped from victim to victim, leaving only bloody stains behind. Bored with playing with his new toy, he allowed the bullet to dissipate, the soul energy the little metal ball contained turning the iron it was mixed with into dust. It was no wonder Ms Rip Van Wrinkle had limited her use of them, they would've have been difficult to make. For her, anyway.

He stepped out of the vehicle that had dropped him here; it had done its part now. The fear that spread across the Blue Star members was a testimony to his legend. They knew who, or rather what he was.

He proved this within the next three seconds, as several vampires sped towards him, accompanied by large wolves that were only slightly slower. That was no problem; there were always people late to the party. His fist went through the first vampire's shoulder, a blonde middle-aged woman. She screamed in pain, which was when he sliced her in half. Still alive, she looked at him in open horror; she hadn't even seen him move.

"You'll never be even half the vampire that I am" he snarled as finished her with a blow that tore her chest apart. Then he grabbed the next, a man by the throat. "You're all just a mockery of what a true vampire should be!" He summoned the rifle back into his free hand, and then fired it through the man's head. It erupted outwards in a spray of blood, before dancing at speeds that defied gravity through each of the pale imitations of his kind.

Even as their screams escaped from their tortured throats, Alucard faced the wolves, which had surrounded him in a semi-circle, growling uncertainly at him. "Oh, no I haven't forgotten you _things_ either, you're just cheap magic tricks, and unluckily for you, I have some magic tricks of my own." Razor-sharp cards appeared in the air next to him, before zipping forward at a merciless pace. Howls pierced the night as they cut and slashed the pack of beasts before him. A few even exploded on contact.

A whimpering wolf was the last one left; bleeding heavily it lay on its side. "There, there" Alucard whispered as he lowered himself down to the dying creature's face "You haven't seen the grand finale yet." He pulled a card from the wolf's mouth. "Is this your card? It is?" he ignored the frantic sounds coming from the downed wolf "then you should keep it." He shoved the playing card back into the wolf's mouth. As he strode away, he clicked his fingers and the beast's head exploded. "See," he said to the lifeless corpses, more than a few barely recognisable after the little tussle" I told you I knew some magic tricks."

The human Blue Star forces, already demoralised by the shock tactics of the Hellsing forces, stared at the crimson coated vampire. The elite of those currently stationed at the base were either surrounded by their vital organs, or torn and shredded. The one who had down it didn't even look like he'd broken a sweat. Those who had been thinking clearly at the moment would have pointed out that vampires couldn't sweat. None of them were however, they seemed more concerned pouring round after round at the implacable hellish beast that was descending upon them.

It was becoming clear that the Hellsing squads that had been deployed were more for finishing the wounded mercifully, rather than for actually fighting the Blue Star rank-and-file. The vampire could clearly do that all by his lonesome. Terror blossomed across the few surviving soldiers. Parts of the creature that were blown off were being stitched back onto the creature's torso by writhing shadows. The bullets couldn't even get rid of the bloodthirsty grin that reformed itself time and time again.

One particular soul, a recent recruit, was on the verge of breaking down completely. So when an arm wrapped around his shoulders, the man jolted in fear. Unfortunately for him, he turned to see the terrifying visage of Alucard, leering down at him with a gaze holding nothing but the promise of an eternity of suffering. He screamed, and his teammates stopped firing for a moment at the still approaching Alucard, and whirled to face him. There were two of them?!

"Is that anyway to treat guests?" Alucard said courteously. "I suppose that I'll have to teach you all some manners." The first Alucard exploded in a flurry of playing cards. Looking past the Alucard that was in the middle of their group, they could see several continuing the advance upon Blue Star headquarters, while the Hellsing teams had bypassed the group and were lending supporting fire to the clones of the vampire, apparently confident in his abilities. They were surrounded. This wasn't going to end well for them.

Alucard sank his fangs into the man he had appeared by, and drained his blood, not bothering to savour his first real meal since his return. He was here on business. The man's skin turned a dark shade of grey, as his life-blood was being sucked right out of his veins. His skin shrivelled in itself, now mummified and tight, a corpse's flesh. Teeth appeared to lengthen as the gums were drawn back by the lack of blood. The now dead eyes gained a feral madness, even as they glowed with a supernatural light. The creature's fingernails sharpened, the dark magic at work finally changing the body, not simply inhabiting it. The man's soul was gone, stolen with the blood that had once sustained this beast.

It lunged, sinking its canines into the throat of other hapless Blue Star member in a parody of its own brutal creation. A transformation began to affect the bitten victim, even as the zombie-like thing lurched forward after another of its once comrades. Soon the little isolated squad of men and women that had had hopes and dreams had been completely turned into mindless killing machines. Their souls were the puppets of the dark monster that was laughing at the carnage before them, and they stumbled forward, intent on sinking teeth into the desperate forces facing the vampire.

It was a neat trick; Alucard thought that Millennium had come up with. Turning whoever the ghoul bit, regardless of the age-old restrictions, meant that their artificial vampires could generate chaos within a few seconds that could take down a city. And since he had absorbed their little pet vampires, he could use all of their abilities. He was so glad that Integra had given him a first mission that let will go wild for a while. As soon as he had materialised again the weighty restrictions that bound the full extent of his powers had applied themselves at full force. Now however, he didn't need to summon his vast army of familiars to use their powers. Now he could use them all in his weakest "form".

He strode forward, his little pack of ghouls following behind him eagerly. The desperate courage of the small knot that were protecting the entrance to the base dissolved when they saw a third Alucard appear, along with the bloody corpses of their comrades that were somehow reanimated, despite the death-blows that had been dealt to them. They had heard of ghouls, but seeing them was an altogether different experience. Their screams terrified the soldiers that were left inside.

The two fake Alucards suddenly ripped apart into a mass of twisting shadows and playing cards. The playing cards smashed into and through the doors, killing most of the forces that had gathered around the door, ready to pepper the incoming Hellsing forces with bullets. The shadows slithered in through the gaping holes in the solid oak doors. The playing cards pulled themselves from where they had lodged, some with an ominous squelch, before gathering together with the shadows. The light seemed to bend for a moment, before two identical copies of Alucard stepped out. Of the playing cards and shadows, there was no sign.

The Hellsing forces found virtually no resistance as they entered after the Alucards. Occasionally they heard gunshots or other less pleasant noises. All that was left in the wake of their vampire ally was corpses, and even those were few. Evidently the ghouls were doing most of the work.

Cautiously Sergeant Mason motioned his men into the last room, where a large glass wall allowed them to gaze down into the bay below, were the waves battered a small jetty on which several boats were moored. The view was partially obscured by specks of blood, while shining dead eyes gazed at them from the other sides of the room. They were lined up with a military precision that was at odds with their dishevelled appearance. It was a grim sight, further added to by the sight of Alucard interrogating what appeared to be the sole survivor of what had once been the Blue Star regional headquarters.

He wore simple jeans and a t-shirt that was too ripped and stained to make out its colour or any details. An odd necklace was around his neck, a pentagram with a blue star inside it. From what Masons could see, it appeared he was one of the magic users that he had been forewarned by Sir Integra, and in turn he had also forewarned his squad about.  
Alucard seemed to have got what he wanted, for he summoned the strange rifle that Mason had seen him use when they had landed, and promptly shot him in the head. The blood splattered across the floor-to-ceiling window, and helped to obscure the impressive vista beyond. From what Mason knew of vampires, they could simply drain someone's blood and have all their memories, so there was no need for interrogation, but then, he also knew that most vampires had a rather sadistic streak to them. And Alucard was supposed to be the craziest and most powerful vampire out there.

An expression of concentration briefly flashed across Alucard's face, then the strange rifle disappeared, and all the blood in the room began to flow towards the ancient vampire. Mason felt something lap gently against his boots, and looked down to see with slight horror that his gas mask thankfully concealed, a river of blood heading rapidly towards Alucard. He's taking in all of the blood that was spilt in our attack, he realised, and the term waste not want not floated macabrely through his mind. In less than a minute, the red stream was gone, and Alucard let out a content sigh. "Now that was a refreshing meal" he announced to no one in general.

"I have no need of you at the moment" he gestured to the ghouls, "So I will be taking all that lovely black magic from you." With that, the corpses lost the supernatural light in their eyes, and crumpled to the ground, fully dead once more. He turned to Mason and Filks, who watched him with wary silence. "I believe that that was the last of them" he stated. That's when the sound of a boat starting could be heard outside. Small figures could be seen frantically running around on the jetty, readying their escape vehicle.

Alucard's eyes flashed with annoyance, and then speaking quickly he said "Sergeants Filks and Mason? I assume you both want a prisoner?" The two nodded quickly. "Then the fastest way would be to take you with me." He grabbed the two squad leaders, then spun on his heel lightning fast, and crashed through the window, shattering it.

They descended quickly, Alucard shooting forward like an arrow using his powers of flight. He hit the wooden planks of the quay with force, almost snapping the thick wood like matchsticks. He dropped the two stunned squad leaders, then sent a shower of deadly cards towards the shocked Blue Star members. One of them must have been thinking quickly, for a barrier of blue energy stopped the soldiers from being torn apart. The boat roared off, those on-board firing a barrage with their weapons as they escaped. Or they would have, if they had faced any other foe that night besides Alucard. The ancient vampire once again grabbed the two sergeants by their lapels, then sped through the air after the boat.

The magic-user had evidently had enough time to cook up an even greater spell than the simple shield that had blocked Alucard's attacks, for a pentagram surrounded by a circle formed in the air runes and symbols that burned the eyes etched themselves into existence hanging in blue fire around it. Immediately Alucard felt a pull that seemed to tug at his very existence, he knew that he could not escape even with all his vampiric strength. He hurled the two Hellsing agents into the pentagram, were they promptly vanished. The musket materialised once more in his hands, and dozens of bullets poured out from it, the gun seeming to almost be alive as the torrent thundered down the barrel, causing the barrel to writhe. From the scowl on Alucard's face, it was clear that this was not supposed to happen. He was struggling to control the weapon and not be sucked into the glowing spell.

Most of the rounds were pulled into the pentagram, but one managed to break free, before setting a course directly for the boat's engine. Alucard's resistance faded, his strength utterly spent, even as he lost he would have his revenge. Then he was ensnared and taken in by the vortex. The spell disappeared, as the caster promptly also disappeared, the fireball that was once the Blue Star boat blocking him from sight.

The sea was silent now, save for the lapping of the waves and the wheeling gulls. People laughed and cried, the world was no different. The world moved on, unaware of what had happened. The No-life king was gone, his last mark on the world only a trail of corpses slowly sinking into the depths. A fitting departure for one of his infamy.

 **And so Alucard came to a harsh end at the hands of a magical vortex… With Hellsing's main character now gone, can the crossover go on? Is this the end? All will be revealed in chapter 3, and if you have any questions PM me.**

 **This is my first time writing a continuous fight scene as long as this, so if there's anything you guys think I need to improve on, make sure to tell me. As a small side note, I will be posting in the author's notes explanations for things that (A that I feel aren't all that clear or (B you guys think aren't clear. This doesn't mean that I will be lazy and just use the author's notes to explain the thing, it** **will** **be in the story, and just the description etc. might be too vague. That's just too clear things up a little, and because my mind forces me to make sure minor things are alright. You may notice that the paragraphs are generally a bit smaller than the previous chapter. I** **do** **try to work constructive criticisms into my story (unless it would utterly ruin the story, or at least, for me) so don't be afraid to bash me with constructive criticism (flames this is not a loophole!).**

 **Again pardon any mental injuries or scarring incurred from my horrible attempts at humour, best of luck with your physiatrist (just don't send the therapy bill to me, got it?) Make sure to check out TehUnoMan and don't forget FidderTheClown (who I forgot to mention last chapter is currently writing the RWBYxNaruto crossover The True Horror of Beacon.)**

 **Please R &R and BYEEEEEE!**


	3. A Valed Threat

**Naught But A Remnant:**

A Valed Threat

 **I apologise for how late this chapter is, and I'm sorry to say that there's a good chance that I won't be able to keep to the schedule on my profile. With that out of the way, onwards with the show!**

Things were peaceful in the kingdom of Vale. Or at least, as peaceful as things could get for a kingdom constantly besieged by monsters that seemed more at home in nightmares then the real world. Citizens bustled purposely, cars and automobiles glided down the roads, all in all it was just a normal Saturday. Or it was, until reality fractured for a moment.

A swirling blue portal pulled itself into existence, bounded by a pentagram and simple circle. All near it almost passed out from the pain that tugged at the core of their beings, the portal didn't _belong;_ it shouldn't be here their instincts whispered worriedly. The pain began to escalate, if that was even possible, while the effects were spreading throughout the four kingdoms were at the least suffering pounding headaches. The world was for a moment, Human, Faunus, Animal and Grimm, united in pain.

Then two bedraggled men were thrown from the vortex, smashing into walls and other people. The agony lessened ever so slightly. That was not the only strange thing to issue forth from the gateway to another world. A cloud of silver bullets shot out, only to hang in the air, before bursting apart in clouds of metal and energy. Suddenly the vortex seemed to shudder, barely able to hold its shape, writhing madly within the confines of the circle that bound it. The blue of the portal began to corrupt into a tainted red, vomiting the colour till only the pentagram and circle remained untouched. Occasionally blue crested in the swirling madness of the door to another place, like froth bubbling forth, but it was quickly submerged beneath the waves of sickening crimson.

A figure stepped from this hellish spell, even as the taint reached the runic writing and the circle. The pentagram turned a mottled black, as though entropy had set into the core of the shape. The liquid nature of the vortex began to clot, clumps of dark red haemorrhaging across the door that the demonic creature had used to enter their world, as though the gate was decaying, dying. Its lifeblood of energy was slowing and drying up the thing that had stepped through having dealt a death-blow to it just by going near it, his very presence like the plague.

The agony spiked, all united in a pain that threatened to almost spilt their heads apart, then it was gone, leaving only a nameless terror, and the first words the stranger had uttered as he had touched their soil. No matter how far away, whether a few feet from the once raging vortex, now sluggish and falling apart, or hundreds upon thousands of miles in the distance. They seared themselves into their minds, even the mindless and soulless Grimm fearing those words. There was a cold certainty in those lines, a tone that brought vivid images of carrion crows and the bloody aftermath of massive battles to mind. The voice that spoke them revelled in a sicking glee that told all who heard it that their fate lay in its hands. "The No-Life king has come" it whispered in the empty silence of their minds "Your doom has risen, your end approaches."

The demon for what else could it be, grinned a feral smile that promised pain and suffering to all that saw it. An aura of death pulsed from it, so strong that it was almost tangible. Then it collapsed in a spray of blood, the aura vanishing, the portal blowing away with the fragile breeze.

As if a spell was broken, those closest staggered to their feet, before stumbling away as best as they could. A certain group of four females however were running the opposite way to the panicked crowds, deploying weapons that marked them at the very least as Huntresses-in-training as they sprinted towards the downed thing in the street. Huntsmen and Huntresses from across the four kingdoms followed, many in town for the festival. Swords, maces, pistols, knives and even one or two scythes were being readied as they raced across rooftops or down alleys. The Huntresses-in-training came across the demon first, the adolescents gathering around with weapons cautiously aimed at the creature, or in the case of two of them, pointed at the visitor from another world.

The apparent leader, from the slight questioning glances being directed at her from the others, was a petit girl whose most distinguishing features were silver eyes and red highlights in her otherwise dark hair, advanced with a large red and black scythe ready to strike. Alucard noted idly as he burst off the ground towards her with unnatural speed that she was dressed in clothes that matched her hairstyles colours, and that she appeared to be among the youngest of them. What he only noticed with slight shock seconds later was that she easily evaded his blow; one should have been quicker than a human could react to. The blonde one in a somewhat revealing outfit shouted a distressed "Ruby" (quite a fitting name, he thought) despite the fact that this Ruby was perfectly fine (he hadn't wounded her in the slightest.)

What followed was rather humiliating. The blonde's hair set on fire and she began firing explosive rounds from what he had assumed to be gauntlets, the one who had cat ears (this was a different world he supposed) joining the volley with pistol rounds, while the one in white did something with her sword and his whole side was suddenly frozen in ice. He collapsed to the ground, not from their petty attacks, but from a wave of weakness that overcame him, something he had almost never experienced. More blood burst from his body, the dark magic that held it together waxing and waning abruptly and without warning, one moment he was at his normal strength, the next he was spurting blood and as helpless as a mewling kitten. What had the vortex done to him?

They froze him almost completely in ice, and he pretended to be restrained, even as dozens upon dozens of strangely-clad and armed men and women surrounded him and cut off any and all escape routes. Normally he would simply butcher the entire contingent sent to capture him with ease. Of course normally he never felt so…weak before, it felt as though he had been drained of his power somehow, the constant flow of energy that he had always felt abruptly halted. It was alarming, especially when the power the people that currently surrounded him was taken into account.

They could match his speed, or rather they could match his weakened, current form's speed. Fighting right now would be to no avail, as even temporally using his power played havoc with the diminished amount of dark magic holding his body together. When he had stepped from the portal, the magic surging through his sluggish veins had sharpened and proceeded to burst out of him, ripping anything in its path apart.

The ice was removed; no doubt as the swath of humans encircling him decided that the amount of sharp pointy things and gun barrels would be enough to dissuade him from doing anything to resist capture. Had he had his full strength, and not some watered-down fraction of it, he would've torn through them without a second thought, but he had to make do with what he had. Besides, he thought a feral, fear-inspiring grin stretching itself across his face, causing those nearby to shiver; Integra would love to hear about this place, especially if the powers he had seen could be harnessed.

Ruby Rose was normally a happy vibrant person, but something seemed off about the prisoner they were currently escorting to see Headmaster Ozpin. An aura of death and terror clung to the man and despite his rather dismal state at the moment, an air of ruined grandeur hung about him like a cloak. To those who had an eye for such things one could see the slight tension of the man, the rumpled clothes that smelt ever so slightly of blood barely disguising the fact. The dark madness that lurked behind the shattered glasses was even more evident, a swirling pit of horrors that one could lose themselves in all too easily.

The rest of her team clearly thought the same, for they fidgeted and mumbled, making sure that their gazes never fell upon their strange captive. The air was rife with palpable tension, the Huntsmen and Huntresses of Vale that surrounded the strange prisoner uncomfortable with the man's presence. The lunatic grin or the occasional dark chuckles certainly did not help to settle the nervous group.

It was with great relief that the capturers made their way to the Bullhead station, as the other Huntsmen and Huntresses could now foist full responsibility onto the unfortunate team RWBY and the few professors (of which there were four) that had also apprehended the apparent dimensional hopper.

The two others that appeared to have come with him, (based on their strange uniforms and eyewitness reports) were also being held captive, though they were in a far worse state, pale and cold to the touch as if they had some sort of fever. One of the two was missing his left hand, the article ending in a stump just below the elbow. It had been bleeding profusely before they had roughly bandaged it, knowing the importance of getting the prisoners to a secure location, and Beacon Academy would be perfect.

Most of the Huntsmen and Huntresses quickly dispersed, even as one of the many Bullheads that ferried passengers to and fro from Beacon descended. The professors, team RWBY and a few other students that were returning to Beacon after a day out to Vale (they were watching the strange group with interest, seeing as they hadn't been able to respond in time before they lost track of the "anomaly".) stepped aboard quickly. The professors and team RWBY wanted to deposit their prisoners to Professor Ozpin and his deputy Professor Goodwitch, while the other students were curious to find out more about what had happened. The agonising pain they had felt less than an hour before was still fresh in everybody's minds, not to mention the grim words…

When the older students, for team RWBY where the only first-year students there, attempted to gather information, the professors quickly silenced them, before making it clear that it was to remain private knowledge that Beacon Academy was keeping someone evidently against their will (even if he had attacked a Beacon student, who knew what had been happening inside his head while the Ruby Rose and her friends had surrounded the man, weapons drawn?)

The Bullhead pilot was directed to land as close to Professor Ozpin's office as possible, which the middle-aged man had responded to with gusto. He had hovered the Bullhead just inches from the front doors, allowing the professors to elate, who then summarily dismissed team RWBY, to their evident relief. The whole display garnered curious looks from the few students that were in sight. Luckily, most of the attendees of the prestigious Beacon Academy were in their dorms or still scattered around the city of Vale (a few had even gone to visit Signal several miles from Vale itself), meaning the professors could quickly take the main prisoner to see the Headmaster of Beacon, while the other two were escorted to the Infirmary by other faculty staff, notified during the uncomfortable Bullhead journey.

As the professors bustled the apparent manic towards Professor Ozpin's office, the smile began to grow even larger and sinister, shadows falling in unnatural places, creating a visage that was highly disturbing. The occasional giggles were soon replaced with almost constant guffaws that spoke of madness and despair, of the dark places of the world that the sorry excuse of a man between them (at least to their eyes) had seen.

It was with relief that the professors handed the crazy but reasonably harmless (once again a miscalculation that the faculty members really shouldn't have made) prisoner over to Ozpin's second in command Miss Glynda Goodwitch. She certainly seemed to live up to her name, with her severe white blouse, striking blonde hair and tattered black cape. The time honoured tradition of too low a paygrade to handle certain situations came to mind.

The lift rose silently, Miss Goodwitch keeping a wary eye on the man in the bloodstained crimson clothes that occupied the same space with her. The slightly darker patches had been discerned by her watching eyes immediately, and as the man seemed to slip even further into insanity, and she became even more cautious. There was an aura about him that the others may have been able to dismiss as simple madness, comforting themselves with lies, she knew better. It was the miasma that spoke of slaughter and an innocence gladly surrendered to darkness, which screamed of danger, making those around feel an anxiety that was unrelenting. She knew it well, for the older Huntsmen and Huntresses projected it unconsciously, hell she had before she had worked at Beacon Academy. She and all the professors had trained it out of themselves before they began to teach classes, to keep it from driving their students up the wall.

But she had never encountered such a strong one, and in the confined space it was stifling. Already she had begun nervously fidgeting, her eyes increasingly drifting away from the figure across from her. She was always calm and composed, how was this happening to her?!

A bell chimed, and the doors slide open, much to Miss Goodwitch's gratitude, as she too could not wait to get away from the laughing twitching captive. And then he saw professor Ozpin.

The silver-haired Huntsman that had steered Vale through countless disasters stood from behind his desk, his features giving nothing away. He appeared surprised, in reality; he had been made aware of this the moment that the man had been taken into custody. The captive hungrily eyed Ozpin, and Glynda for a moment thought she saw desperation, sorrow and perhaps hope? Then the moment was gone, and the man's demeanour changed instantly from his earlier manic actions. He straightened up; gaining control of himself with such precision it was clear military training had been in his past. His almost ravenous expression turned to one of polite boredom, as though he could not care in the slightest about what was happening around him. The most startling change was the man's voice, for before there had been an undertone of madness, now it was completely level, no indication whatsoever that insanity lurked inside the man's head.

"Professor Ozpin, I presume?" the man questioned. How did he know that? "Indeed I am, and your name is?" Ozpin replied in that language known as statesmanship that Glynda frankly detested. The man was a prisoner, and in her opinion should be treated as such. "My name, well that's simple. I am Alucard…" and now that insatiable madness returned in the wide grin "the No-Life King."

 **In the editing process, the original author's note here got deleted, so basically this is just too say that I am horrible for leaving you on a cliff-hanger while I ponderously write the next chapter yadda-yadda, evil-smevil. (This point is now moot because I have updated, but still I must buff up the word count in any way I can-emm…You guys can just go onto the next chapter and leave me to my raving here alright?)**


	4. The End Times ComethAfter the Break

**Naught But A Remnant:**

The End Times Cometh…After the Break

 **Here's the next chapter. Enjoy. The ball finally gets rolling, and I no doubt annoyed you all with that cliff-hanger at the end of chapter three. Damn, is that two cliff-hangers in a row? I really shouldn't let that happen again so you aren't frothing at the mouth for the next instalment, but where's the fun in just ending after resolving the issue? With that said, onwards with the show.**

A silence that was full of implications descended upon the office. The Headmaster of Beacon sighed, pushing his glasses up his nose once more. Alucard had no doubt that he was the world-weary type, hiding this behind eccentrics that over time would get worse and worse. It -happened to the best of warriors, their world-view slowly becoming jaded as the bloodshed lost its allure or repulsion. Of course Alucard was a typical example, his sadistic nature brought about by the desperate search for something to make life worth living. He didn't sympathise with the professor of course, he had suffered this for far longer. Besides, monsters like himself could not help, in truth they could only destroy.

"I hate to say this, but I'm afraid that I'm going to have to keep you prisoner here, if and only if you're this No-Life King I've heard about." For all the Headmaster knew, this could be a somewhat desperate attempt by their captive into intimidating them into releasing him. It wasn't a very good or much thought-out plan, but then those made in the heat of the moment rarely are.

"You doubt me?" the words were spoken with mocking malice. "I…suppose you have every right too, given the circumstances, but I am still insulted." The insanity began to seep once more into his posture and voice, the fragile control obviously worn thin by the disbelief. "And those that insult the No-Life King, well, they don't live long." Professor Ozpin grip tightened imperceptibly on his cane, not making so much as a whisper of noise. The crazed man's gaze shot to him, and was that anticipation that flared in those ghoulish eyes?

Alucard if that was his real name, stretched out his hand, and an ancient looking musket formed from reddish-black energy. As the man grasped it, his features became wilder, despite the blood that sprayed in abundance from around his body. Whatever form of Semblance, otherworldly magic or weapon this was, it clearly strenuously taxed Alucard's body. Professor Goodwitch raised her riding crop, and objects around the room rose into the air, completely under her control. Ozpin meanwhile hit the hidden switch at the top of his cane, and slid a thin bladed sword from its hidden casing.

The air was rife with tension and the coppery smell of spilled blood, though curiously the blood that stained the self-proclaimed No-Life King rapidly dried. It was he that initiated the fight, flipping his musket as though to use it as a make-shift club, before disappearing in a blur of speed that made it look as though he was teleporting.

Alucard appeared before Professor Goodwitch, her dress and black cape rippling in the air created by his passage. As she stumbled back, her face aghast and white with shock, he rammed the musket into her stomach area with lightning speed and strength, sending all of the air in her lungs whooshing out in a great gasp. It was a testament to the strength of the glimmering shield covering her that Alucard could see up close that the musket did not impale her; instead she was sent flying through the wall, presumably to her death far below.

Professor Ozpin let a rare show of emotion cloud his face, anger. He activated his Semblance and immediately the world slowed to a snail's pace around him. He pressed another concealed button on his sword's casing. A grip unfolded, along with a trigger, while the front folded into several small barrels, mimicking the front of a minigun. His sword began to glow with a soft lime green hue; it appeared as though he was channelling some kind of energy along the blade. It was fortunate that he had activated his Semblance when he did, as otherwise he too would have been dispatched in no doubt the same fashion as his unfortunate employee.

Alucard had begun to sprint towards the Professor; his speed was curtailed however by Ozpin's use of his Semblance. Normal people, even fleet-footed Huntsmen and Huntresses would be mired in the seemingly frozen moment, and even those with Semblances tailored towards speed such as Ruby Rose, would have difficulty fighting in such an environment, sustained fighting would certainly play heavily into Ozpin's hands.

It was still surprising that Alucard was able to continue moving forward at what appeared to Ozpin as Huntsmen level speed, even more so was the fact that he was leaving a scarlet trail in the air behind him. It appeared that Alucard's abilities were causing even more damage to his body in an attempt to speed up.

What worried Ozpin was that it seemed to be working. Already his foe was beginning to blur around the edges, and should he reach the speed that had caught a senior Huntress off guard in a move that if not lethal had severally injured her. It was downright terrifying to imagine how fast that Alucard would be going outside the effects of his Semblance. He was far too slow to compete with that kind of speed, hell if the man didn't slow down before he hit him, he would be little more than paste, even with the nullifying effects of his Semblance.

So he cheated a little. He increased the "weight" as it were of the Aura, his innate power; he had saturated the air with. He sped up tenfold, while in direct contrast the supposed "No-Life King" speed decreased by ten times.

Now this was the kind of fight he was used to. He opened fire with his cane/minigun, sending dozens of Aura reinforced blasts streaking towards Alucard. In response, the musket's barrel bulged, then shot out as many, if not more silver bullets. How was that possible, there was no chance that that weapon followed the laws of science? But then, Aura, Semblances and whatever dark power Alucard wielded were also outside of nature's rules.

The bullets negated it each other, then finally Alucard had closed with Ozpin, dashing through the cloud of smoke from the combined attacks, at the pace of a normal sprinter. It was now or never thought Ozpin, he knew that prolonging this fight would only aid Alucard; he wasn't sure how long he could keep up the pressure against an opponent almost tailored exactly to beat what had been considered unbeatable in the world of Huntsmen and Huntresses for decades. Mr. Ozpin's Frozen Moment.

He was going to be forced to use that attack, but should he mistime it, he would have no second chance; the fight would almost be handed on a platter to Alucard. He raised his sword to block the incoming fist barrelling towards him, and closed his eyes.

He felt his Aura scattered through the air, supressing time itself for a brief moment, then pulled it towards him. It rushed to his sword, the thin rapier glowing with a blindingly bright now deep green colour. Too late Alucard saw the danger, and tried to rear away, even as his eyes closed reflexively.

Alucard's fist touched Ozpin's blade. And the frozen moment ended. Even as time resumed its normal state of affairs, a certain individual had been entirely cut off from the main flow of time, the mass of Aura that had slowed time to a crawl having imprisoned him instead.

Ozpin made his way to the hole in his office wall, and peered out with worry evident behind his glasses. What he saw made a small smile appear on his face, for clutching ribs that were obviously broken, barely upright, Professor Goodwitch was hovering upon a chunk of rock and metal that she had apparently ripped from the wall of the tower with her telekinesis.

Had he been paying more attention, he may have felt his Aura prison being ripped apart with the ease of a child the wings of flies. He was lucky, for the dark magic that held Alucard together had surged inside of him during the fight, and as such it dipped drastically, meaning that the punch that hit Ozpin at the speed of sound was only bone-shattering, and did not rip right through his right shoulder. Had it done so, Ozpin would have been permanently deprived of that arm, not to mention currently tumbling through the arm at considerable speed.

Ozpin screamed in pain, but managed to use the momentum to spin around to face his opponent once more. Alucard was in a bad state. He had lost a large amount of blood, not to mention the damage that was no doubt done to now burned out muscles. The reddish-black energy that Ozpin had seen earlier seeped from the various cuts, mixing with the streams of blood to form a sluggish mixture that was black with hints of purple.

As he watched, Alucard slumped to the floor, his broken hand twitching and shuddering erratically. The blow must have done just as much to Alucard as it had to Ozpin himself. From the wisps of what looked like a corrupted version of Aura that streamed from the damaged hand, it had obviously been pumped full of the energy in an attempt to finish Ozpin. It seemed to have somewhat acidic proprieties, as Professor Ozpin's wound was an agony beyond a simple dislocated joint.

Professor Goodwitch had hurriedly risen through the air as soon as she had realised that he had suffered one last hit from Alucard, and she quickly stepped through the hole in the wall. Using each other as temporary crutches of a sort, they hobbled over to Ozpin miraculously surviving desk. Ozpin hurriedly called for medical aid from the infirmary immediately, as while their Aura could heal even wounds as bad as they had taken over time, their reserves had been depleted quickly, Ozpin's by maintaining such Aura-intensive abilities for too long, and Glynda from expending most of her Aura reinforcing the natural shield that it maintained around her to prevent certain death from Alucard's blow.

After insuring that medical support was on the way, Ozpin (making sure to keep a wary eye on the prone form of Alucard to ensure that he didn't try any more surprises) called the head of security, along with all professors currently not occupied with teaching. He wanted as large an escort as he could muster to ensure that Alucard was safely contained on his way to the only place in Vale that Ozpin considered secure enough to contain Alucard.

"Prepare Pandora's Box for opening. It's time to seal away the evils of the world again, and to release hope." Glynda started when she heard the code phrase that Ozpin had just uttered. She had been taken out fairly rapidly from the fight, but surely the defeated Alucard didn't warrant such a threat as to utilise that method of contentment. It would be putting the whole of Beacon Academy's populace at risk.

Reluctantly she knew that it was the only place that could hold someone who appeared to be as powerful as this "No-Life King". After seeing the level of power that their opponent had at his disposal, not least that the man had managed to wound Ozpin; it was no longer hard to believe that title was not false.

How in the world had team RWBY managed to capture such a powerful foe? They were a good team, but even together nowhere near fighting such a strong enemy. Had he been weakened by dimensional travel? Were they only seeing a fraction of the power that the man could control, and if so, would that power return to him?

Pandora's Box was the best place to contain him, she was certain of that now, but the cost of what would happen should Alucard escape, and the amount of the students that would be killed, was it worth it? Perhaps, as much as she hated to think off it, they should do themselves a favour and end Alucard while he was at their mercy? Deep down she knew that Ozpin would never even consider the option, he firmly believed in right and wrong, and would defend any who sought to hurt another person. That was his greatest strength and weakness, and in the end she knew that was what would lead to his demise.

Alucard awoke in a cell, chained securely to the wall by a thick steel chain that was of middling length. After a few minutes of investigation, he discovered that it allowed him freedom to move around the rectangular cell, and was most that it was at its loosest when he sat on the small bench that was opposite the sturdy steel door that served as an exit.

A small speaker sat above the door, and it crackled into life once he had finished his inspection of his new confines. "Welcome to Pandora's Box, Vale's if not the world's most secure prison cell. In case you noticed the slight seesawing, you are currently suspended between two powerful magnets that are all that's keeping you from tumbling down into a deep chasm with enough force to leave little more of a smudge on the floor." Alucard could not place the voice, it was obviously pre-recorded, and he certain that he had not met the owner of the voice. "The whole cell is specially pressurized, so if you break through the walls, the room will quickly resemble the inside of a crushed tin can. Finally surrounding the whole room is an Aura shield, maintained constantly. If you so much as touch it, it will strip the skin from your bones, so I highly suggest that you sit tight in there. The IV drips in your arm are the only things that leave that room, and they will keep you fed. You're on camera as well, so make sure you behave."

The tape ended, and Alucard was left in silence. Rather than disappointment or anger spreading across however, a suave grin had taken root. Could he have finally found the one thing that he had been taken from him at the Battle of London? Had he a new nemesis, one who could bring about the sweet release of death? It did not matter that his strength had been weakened by the spell that had brought him here, for he could feel his magic returning. That was not all, it seemed as though somehow they had been given a boost, if his speed from before was any indication. It would take time, months until he had regained his full strength, but he could wait. After all, that was all the time Hellsing would need to come here in force, and Sir Integra could issue him orders then.

For now he would wait. And so, miles below Beacon Academy, in a lonely prison cell, the ancient vampire brooded in silence, and waited for the games to begin.

 **For all those that while no doubt scream at me for weakening Alucard, it has a purpose, and in fact, is looking like it will make him even more powerful than in canon (Ain't that terrifying?) Also for all those wondering where the hell Pandora's Box came from (hint: the dark corners of my mind) I figured that Ozpin isn't the type to simply sit around doing nothing, even without a threat at hand, and Pandora's Box is the endgame piece in his plan to deal with threats like Cinder Falls (though it wasn't exclusively made to deal with her.)**

 **Frankly I just don't think the cell that Cinder would be put in outside could really stop her escaping, and if the cell is inescapable then perhaps a Grimm or two could be contained and studied without too much trouble.**

 **Another thing to note is that a time skip could be showing up soon, as my short-term planning could be a lot better. It would be more so that I avoid unnecessary chapters that do naught but bore you, than any real plot significance, so it's definitely not guaranteed. Just thought I'd warn you, perhaps you guys can even vote in the reviews if I should do one or not. (This kind of shows how desperate I am to include things for author notes.)**

 **Also something that has to be mentioned is the chance of me posting another fanfiction in the near future, and how it while affect everything. Just now that I won't abandon any of my stories if I can help it, though I am going to be entering a busy year of work once I go back to school (hurrah for exam years!) so that will impact my already slow updating. Just know that I will if not finish the story I will (a post a chapter explaining what was going to happen, or (b give it to a friend or someone I trust to do it justice with how I wanted it to go or (c Put it on hiatus. Bear in mind that these are drastic measures that will be coming into play in the worst case scenario at the middle/end of the next school year if I feel that I'm neglecting the story/stories too much e.g. half a year between each upload etc.**

 **With the doom and gloom out of the way, and hopefully making sure that we won't run into it again, I'd like to thank everyone who's read the story, favourited it, followed it, and reviewed it. It means a lot to know that people like the content I'm producing, especially as I'm in such a small and unnoticed category (just me and TehUnoMan in this large dark, dust-covered space ;-)). R and R, and have a nice day.**


	5. A Dimension Hunting We Will Go

**Naught But a Remnant:**

A Dimension Hunting We Will Go

 **We're back baby! With an additional thousand words added to the usual chapter length, and a veritable bucket full of excuses I might add. Exam year, wanting to make sure that the fifth chapter was bigger and better, grammar checks for the previous chapters, along with actual descriptions being added to the characters in previous chapters. I hope you enjoy, and onwards with the show!**

Seras Victoria had come to treasure the time between the last heartbeats of her victims. The rapid pumping of their blood as the adrenaline kicked in, as they ran or tried to fight, was addicting to listen to. She savoured them because for a moment was in a perfect state of harmony between all important things, her and killing people. She knew it was her vampiric nature, and yet the peace it brought here was more than enough to make her at ease with it.

That was also why she hated fighting vampires, or at least normally. They had no blood rushing through brittle veins, no chemicals kicking them into overdrive as they realised their death had come. But these ones, these were different. She could see the magic that wrapped round them in sickening patterns with her third vampiric eye, while blood still gurgled and gushed through a living body. Oh, they might have the strength, speed and abilities of vampires, but they were still alive, and that meant that they could die. They may have been superhuman, but they were still human, and humans were so weak.

So as she danced with glee through them, her Harkonnen blazing and merrily ripping apart dozens of Blue Star's finest, the weak imitations falling to the wrath of a true vampire.

The humans and those strange wolves that were among them were almost disappointing easy to kill she thought idly, as she slid under the bullets of a Blue Star member. She ended her movement suddenly, stopping mere metres from the man. "Boom" she whispered, and with a twitch of the trigger boom he went.

One of the false vampires tried to blindside her using his speed, but her other senses picked up the painfully slow man compared to her, and as he tried to punch her, she swung the barrel of her Harkonnen into his stomach. He rocketed off into the night, his internal organs no doubt crushed beyond repair.

A wolf latched onto to her forearm, and a moment later it turned into pure vampiric energy that forced itself down the poor creature's throat, and into its lungs. The wolf tried to draw in air, but it couldn't, and before long the energy crawled out of the still beast's body and reformed as her arm. In that time she had already killed another two of her enemies, Pip Bernadotte forming beside her and liberally spraying them with bullets.

A bolt of lightning arched from one of the human Blue Star members, and though she easily dodged the discharged blast, it peaked her interest. She'd finally come across one of their magic-users, had she? Her third eye saw the magic curling and twisting around the man, not bound into the complex symbols of the vampires, but free. Slowly it began to condense into a shape around his arms. She was almost mesmerised by the magic forming. Yes, this was one that she wanted to absorb.

She spun around yet another flurry of bullets, and closed in on her panicking prey. The symbol began to change, while a vortex of energy began to form around him. He could teleport? Yes, she wanted this one.

She sped forward, before sinking her teeth into the man's throat and drinking his blood almost instantly. Rather than forming a ghoul out of him, she pulled his essence inside of her, making it her own. Her veins and body seemed to suddenly thrum with power, and with lazy ease she sent lightning into dozens upon dozens of the Blue Star rank and file. The feeling after taking someone's soul was invigorating; so much strength was suddenly hers to command. She lazily swung her hand in an arc, and sheared a man in half. The weight of numbers that the Blue Star members had was gone, barely a dozen were left, and they were dying quickly no match for her strength.

Seras sighted and fired within a single second, and tore another mage apart in a spray of blood. Grabbing another by his feet, she used him as a makeshift hammer to pound another member, before throwing him into another with bone-breaking force. The other Hellsing members began firing from the edge of the forest; it seemed they had cleared out the Blue Star forces that had been stationed there.

Seras graciously left the remaining members to them, then using her Harkonnen she punched a hole through the doors of the base, and entered. The halls were empty, the Blue Star forces had tried sallying out and they had payed the price for it. It had been an admirable effort, or it would have been if they had been motivated by anything other than fear. They knew their vampires and wolf-things were useless when Hellsing came a calling on wings of death.

She past a room which held filthy cages that must have once held the wolf creatures. Their own excrement mixed disgustingly with the rotting straw, it was clear Blue Star cared little for their experiments in soul transplantation once they had managed the transfer. From a military side of operating the wolves were more a whimsical addition that only added numbers to their ranks, nothing more nothing less. She'd rather chose a human that could wield a gun than a wolf with human intelligence. She noticed that there was a strange mixture of equipment and papers on a solitary desk that was off to one side. Her curiosity peaked; Seras strode towards the workspace, her nose crinkling in disgust from the smell.

She glanced absently at the equipment, her ignorance of what they were meant that observing the machines would be futile if she wanted to gather any information. The scientist who had wrote and drawn the various diagrams had thankfully seen no reason to encode the hastily scrawled messages. A scowl of fury and strangely worry began to form on Sera's face as she read through the now named "Doctor" Pitchford's notebooks.

 _My (Doctor Pitchford) recordings of the soul transplantation experiments._

 _Day 1: Removing subject's soul and storing it. (Soul-stealing spells)_

 _We first attempted using soul-stealing spells and the like in an effort to remove the soul, and while the initial phase was correct, attempts to place the soul within another living subject only resulted in a series of fatal fits. The soul-stealing spells appear to in fact simply kill those they are used on, rather than extracting their souls, it is more akin to black magic than anything else, and black magic will kill all living subjects it is used on. Perhaps tomorrow will yield more success._

 _Day 2: Removing subject's soul and storing it. (Soul-stealing spells followed by blood transfusions)_

 _Recent reports from the artificial vampire group suggests that blood may in fact hold the soul of a being. Attempts to destroy a subject's soul using magic and transplanting blood into the subject from another subject have proven just as fatal as the previous experiment, as both subjects succumbed to black magic poisoning._

They continued on in this fashion, constant accounts of various failures to transplant the soul lining the pages. Seras, disgusted, flipped to the last page. The final account was different, though no less horrifying to read.

 _Day 205: Success!_

 _We have done it. The subject, a little girl, has had her soul successfully transplanted into the body of a wolf pup. We drained her blood and began pumping it into the wolf pup, while doing the same with the wolf pup's blood. It appears that magic is required to ensure the subject's survive, and the little girl's dormant power (it gained quite a high rating on the scale, a nine or so) was transferred through the blood along with her mind. While the girl's body and the wolf pup's soul quickly fell into entropy, decaying rapidly before our eyes, the wolf pup's body and the girl's soul remained stable._

 _Further tests show that her magic has been channelled into constantly warping the subject's body to ensure it can adapt to any environment or attack. Electric shocks were met with a rubbery substance excreted from the subject's skin, and several other attempts to inflict harm were met with mutation after mutation. The changes appear to cause great pain rendering the subject unable to move, and combat applications seem limited and generally worthless. Though there is a theory that the subject even has the ability to warp the space around them, though this hasn't been proven yet and initial estimations should be taken with a grain of salt._

 _Project Cage is finally within our grasp! I will begin inanimate object testing immediately. According to the soothsayers, he will return again soon, we need to be ready._  
Seras read the last paragraph with a sense of confusion, dread and a creeping sense of foreboding. Whoever these "soothsayers" were, they clearly could partially if not fully see the future. What worried her was the he that was talked about. She had a feeling that it meant Alucard, and those soothsayers had known he would return. Project Cage was no doubt a way to defeat Alucard, though it probably wouldn't work out for Blue Star. For God's sake, even Helena's nail plunged into Anderson's own heart hadn't been able to kill him.

Almost as if staged, a small whimper reached Sera's ears. The distraction was what she needed to banish the dark thoughts for a while; a focus. While her nose may have been overwhelmed by the eye-watering stench, her ears remained sharp, so why hadn't she heard anything until now; her hearing was abnormally sharp she could hear people's heart-beats from several metres away without trying. It would have been child's play to find the obviously terrified girl's heart. Could the girl have altered her body to ensure that she wouldn't pick up on her? Clever. It appeared that the pain had gotten to the girl however, and she'd let slip a little cry of pain.

Seras weaved her way through the rusty, ill-maintained cages, noting with detachment that several had scraps of clothing on the floor, and manacles that wouldn't fit anything but a human's hand… Several times she gagged, and almost threw up, her enhanced sense of smell for once working against her rather than aiding her. As she finally made it past the cages, she saw what could only be the blood transfusion machine.

The sight that greeted Seras next was almost indescribable. Blood coated the floor, most of it dried into the wooden floor, other splotches still quite fresh, it almost glowed with heat to her vampiric third eye. Lying across the carpet of blood was a badly burned and bruised wolf pup or at least that was what she thought it was. A strange aura hung around the half-dead creature, and she hurriedly moved to end the creature in a humane as possible way. She pointed the Harkonnen downwards, and then pulled the trigger. The miasma of power pulsed, and she could literally see the fabric of reality unravel itself as the pup warped away from the speeding anti-tank shell.

When the dust settled, Seras could clearly see the young girl in a wolf's body all the way at the door, despite the fact that she had been beside her mere moments ago. It really was quite confusing to her as to how that was even possible, even vampiric and the black magic she was more used to, had several at least unclear limits to them. Then again, considering just how impossible a tiny sliver of Alucard's power seemed, she supposed it was in the realm of possibility that a power like the girl's existed.

The wounds had vanished as though they'd never been, healed by the girl's strange power. The wolf pup looked so adorable that Seras heart made the decision for her. She scooped up the young wolf and stepped into the corridor, getting right to work on finding a certain Mr Pitchford. The bloodthirsty grin and red smears all along her body and uniform combined with the big fuss she was making over the little pup, making sure it was comfortable as she kicked in doors, asked for questions from the few remaining scientists she found, then blew them into little pieces was quite disturbing. Never mind the fact that said little pup seemed to be rooting on the homicidal vampire tearing her former captors apart with a fang-filled smile.

When the Hellsing members found her sitting among the bloody chunks of what had once been Dr Pitchford, playing peek-a-boo with a crimson clad wolf pup, and letting out the occasional insane giggle, in a darkened room, several lost their lunch on the blood stained floor. Nothing could compare to the sheer horror of watching vampires letting their many strange quirks loose. They lost themselves in their own worlds far too easily when they killed, and unfortunately Seras Victoria liked to play childish "games" with her enemies. Everyone who worked with her ended up signing up for the free therapy on offer as soon as possible. Vampires were creatures of violence at their best, but when they regressed into their baser states, that's when the traumas began to pile up on one another.

A common saying around Hellsing was that the one thing that you could never be prepared for was a vampire, and as the men that had the misfortune of stumbling upon her watched, that saying was validated again and again. The ingeniously little ways she began using her victims limbs to play with the wolf pup such as make-shift games of marbles with plucked eyeballs, or the even more terrifying game of skipping she performed using a dying man's entrails for promised years of nightmares to all that saw those horrible scenes. The group that filed into the Hellsing assault helicopters were mentally scarred by what they had seen, and more than a few were glad they had brought the flamethrowers just in case. The burning building had been thoroughly cleansed of the many piles of human body parts that had been lying in and around it, just to ensure that the local firefighters didn't stumble on a scene from hell and raise some interesting….questions about what really happened.

As the Hellsing helicopters began to slowly lift off the ground, their rotors buffeting the ground below them, preparations were already being made for a cover-story. By the time morning rolled around, several different newspapers across Britain would publish "tragic" articles on the fires or other accidents that would hit several seemingly random areas. Luckily for Hellsing, Blue Star had attempted to hide their assets through various companies and back-door policies, so to the public it would appear to merely be an unfortunate series of accidents that would claim the lives of dozens, even hundreds of people. A few decoys had been thrown in to ensure that the black-operations that Hellsing had been running throughout the night would go unnoticed. Britain was at war, and just as it was thirty years ago, the majority of its populace were unaware.

While Hellsing's cover had almost been blown during what was now known as the Millennium Incident (or as Seras not so fondly remembered it, the day Alucard went missing and Pip died) thirty years ago, mentioning's of imprisonment or worse, as well as the little fact that any who spoke out about what truly happened would be considered a traitor of Great Britain ( it was a spur of the moment thing that had been used until official documentation was created). The survivors being forced to sign The Act of Secrecy in Areas Concerning Supernatural Activity or the ASACS for short after the bureaucracy finally drafted the papers had proven too have been another effective deterrent. Considering that it legally allowed the British government to have the contract-breaker kidnapped, driven to an unspecified spot and shot it was with good reason that the few hundred survivors or so had wisely signed. The clause about being buried in an unmarked grave probably had something to do with it as well.

The more fit and able ones that Sir Integra chose were immediately conscripted into Hellsing thanks to special amendments to the recruiting law graciously granted by the Queen. That was how Seras remembered it anyway, though minus the shouting, screaming and burning buildings in the background. She giggled in an unnervingly childish fashion, and those sitting nearest to her shifted further away from her, the high-pitched insane laughter as well as the appalling scent of offal driving them away. The pup in her lap was squirming and twisting around, the smell of human meat so close making it almost unbearable for the girl-wolf, this being the first time she had encountered without adrenaline pumping through her. That was until it concentrated for a moment, and its nose morphed back into its muzzle. With a pained grunt it sat back down in her lap and began to conspicuously breathe through its mouth.

The other members of the successful Hellsing strike team looked incredulously and in some horror at the young wolf-girl hybrid that had curled up into a ball on the homicidal vampire's lap. The least experienced member of the team, having only been with Hellsing for a year or so, whose name on an entirely unrelated note, was Jenkins Baker summed up the whole squad's thoughts in an eloquent manner "Dear God, what the hell is that thing?!"

Seras, luckily for Jenkins, had begun to come out of the influence of her vampiric side, so the blow that followed only drove all the air from his body, rather than drilling straight through his stomach and out the other side. He collapsed to the floor of the helicopter, wheezing. "I'm terribly sorry, but you were being mean my dog." The last of her darker side retracted, her eyes losing their hellish glow returning to their natural blue. Her usual perky and bright personality bubbled up from wherever it had been suppressed, and when she smiled and laughed when the little wolf pup licked her face, there was no hidden malice or insanity concealed anywhere. If you met her, unless you were told about her darker nature there would be no indication that at the drop of a hat she could become a psychotic murderer who was driven by bloodlust butchering with a sickening twisted glee.

That was another thing that was terrifying about vampires or at least the younger ones. They changed between acting like a human and the true monster that lurked within. The older ones, mercifully stood out in any place they were, though why they would even want to hide with the power they could wield was something many Hellsing members were constantly worried about, for if someone that strong could blend in enough to go unnoticed, how much damage could they do before they were killed? The leader of the strike team, Adam Bull, wondered what would happen if Seras Victoria ever went rogue, she had the power and the thin disguise of a human psyche to hide behind, it would be devastating, he concluded, a blow Hellsing could not afford to take. She was their current strongest vampire, and it was rumoured that the other two combined couldn't hold a candle to her. They really needed plans for in case she defected to any side, Adam concluded though hopefully it wouldn't come to that, he would be damned if he wanted that Harkonnen pointed anywhere near his direction.

The helicopters, after an hour or so of flight, alighted back on the tarmac of the Hellsing Manor's hangar. A tow truck was already making its way out of the brightly lit hangar, and the strike team spilled out onto the hard surface below, laughing and joking. All but for Seras of course, who simply sped across the verdant lawns that the tarmac landing pad was situated on, towards the Hellsing Manor itself. It was a common sight after missions for anyone that worked with the vampire before. Dawn wasn't far off, and she still had to report to Sir Integra before she could hit the coffin.

A quick shower and change of clothes later, and Seras Victoria was standing before the large oak doors that led to the debriefing room. She always debriefed ahead of the rest of the soldiers, because of her special conditions when it came to sunlight and staying away during the day (it made her very crotchety if she was woken during the day and the others were the same) and as such it had become an unofficial policy to get the facts from the vampires first after any mission, or indeed any major operation. So it was quite the surprise that when Seras arrived she could hear voices conversing.

Integra's office had been designed to ensure that even a vampire couldn't listen in to any conversation being held in the room. Integra had, her strange sense of humour once again rearing its head, stated that she wanted the sound to be just muffled enough to make it indistinguishable to murmuring. When out of curiosity one of the Hellsing Captains, Marcus Arkwright had asked why, she had responded that there was nothing as infuriating to a spy then knowing that the information they needed is just out of reach, no matter how hard they try.  
So she waited patiently, until finally the doors opened, and with rapid paces the six Hellsing Captains spilled from the room, and no matter how hard she tried, she could not read their expressions. Shrugging, she pushed open the closing door and slipped inside. Sir Integra was seated in her leather chair, dressed now after being woken by Alucard's sudden appearance in the middle of the night. Her blonde hair was paired with silver streaks, while a haggard face and lines crisscrossing her face meant that age had not been kind to her. She was now dressed in a lonas she pushed them back up her nose.

A grim and weary countenance was settled upon her face as she uttered her first words since Seras had entered the room "Report." Seras nodded and then taking a breath launched into a brief explanation of what had happened, the strike team leader (Adam Bull she believed his name was) could fill in all the pointless, unnecessary details. "We destroyed the enemy Blue Star base, and confiscated or burned the research notes and equipment. All enemy personnel were slaughtered. There were no survivors." Sir Integra nodded, and then sighed as she happened to glance downwards. "Understood, on a personal note, whatever is that thing that is sitting at your feet?" a raised eyebrow followed, arching into a perfect bend. "A personal memento from the mission, ma'am." The dog barked almost indignantly at the personal memento part, and Integra blinked for a moment, before sighing once more. "You will have to feed and look after it yourself." Seras nodded eagerly, at heart she was a child, a psychotic one perhaps, but still just a big child. She brightened up Hellsing, she really did.

"I have news that I would rather be false, however it appears that Alucard has fallen foul to an enemy mage's spell, and was sucked into what could best be described as a glowing blue vortex. The Warlock Division assumes it was some sort of vacuum or worm hole as eyewitness reports describe it sucking in several of Alucard's bullets. We have no known way of following the trail. I'm sorry, but Alucard is lost again to us." Those were the words that hit Seras like a sledgehammer to the chest. He was gone, just like before, she could do nothing, not even warn him. Just like before...wait glowing blue portal?

"Does the portal look anything like this?" Seras Victoria concentrated, and the mage she had consumed formed from reddish shadows beside her. A bewildering array of hand symbols and chants later, the glowing portal the mage had tried to escape through appeared. "It's smaller than the other one was said to be, but otherwise yes I'd say it's the same."

Integra entwined her fingers, resolve flaring in her eyes. "This changes things quite a bit, if Blue Star can breach…dimensional walls or cross to other planes of existence, then quite frankly I'd say that this war has become drastically harder, and I'm issuing a Level One state to all units." Seras nodded, elated at the restrictions that were being released on certain weapons, the carnage that was to come would be all the more glorious with them available.  
"Seras I want you to establish a video conference call with the leader of the Founders" an expression of distaste appearing on her face "I haven't talked to my…delightful husband." Seras nodded as she prepared to leave. "You're not worried about Alucard, all alone in a big, vast world?" Seras asked with some hesitation, the bonds between her and her former master were strong after all, and she would worry about him despite knowing his level of strength. "Seras, I wouldn't worry about him at all, in fact I'd rather start worrying about the poor inhabitants of that big, vast world. I fear that if we don't get to him soon, an entire planet's worth of blood might be on our hands."

Seras nodded, and exited the spartan office, leaving the head of the Hellsing Organization alone with dark thoughts.

 **This is more a set-up chapter for oncoming events, though I did place an action scene in to keep it rolling. I have decided to spilt this story into three arcs or parts, which each one built upon the events of the part before it. We are currently half-way through the first act, though time-skips and longer chapters will ensure that it isn't puny in length. The arc lengths can be edited so don't worry if the story might seem to be progressing too fast or vice versa, it will be fixed with the magical powers of editing! R &R please. **


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